


twelve.

by plinys



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Clones, Episode Tag, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-03
Updated: 2018-04-03
Packaged: 2019-04-17 18:58:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,082
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14195610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/plinys/pseuds/plinys
Summary: The eleven versions of her that came before versus the one that really mattered.(An episode tag for "Guest Starring John Noble")





	twelve.

**Author's Note:**

> I had a really hard time thinking of an episode tag for this episode, because I was really satisfied with the AvaLance scenes that we got (and I am very excited for the finale), but something about the idea that there were other Avas before "our Ava" got me and well... This happened.

1

The first time is technically Rip’s fault.

A flaw in his planning.

Something he didn’t account for, that a clone knowing of its true origin would have no sense of self preservation. He can see the logic in it, of her in her stepping in front of him like a shield. Protecting that which _purchased_ her from the future, fulfilling a programmed purpose to protect and service.

It’s useful certainly.

A bullet meant for his heart going into an artificial one instead.

But it’s also terribly inconvenient.

“Oh bollocks.”

  


2

“Director Hunter it is my job to protect you.”

“Yes, well you’re bloody inconvenient to keep replacing. Do you have any idea how expensive you are?”

She blinks at him, slowly like she is genuinely processing the question. As if she was also not currently bleeding out across from him. Sitting together side by side in a bunker as he waited for their reinforcements to come.

It would be too late for her.

Another inconvenience.

He’s already calculating exactly how many _agents_ memories he will have to erase to keep this experiment going on. Which was more of a headache than this almost seemed worth, but on the other hand if this succeeded there wouldn’t be a need for other agents at all.

The eventual pros outweighing the current cons.

At least, that was what he tried to tell himself.

“Based on the current time period’s inflation levels or my resale value in 2213,” Ava asks after a long pause, seeming to reached whatever conclusion she had been looking for. Slower than usual. Her processing powers already diminishing, though her hint of a personality core seemed to remain in tact.

He can’t help but smile a little fondly at that. She reminds him of Gideon at times like this. “It was a rhetorical question, Ava.”

“Because my resale value is diminishing by the second.”

  


3

“Why should the Time Bureau be run by humans, when you’re all inherently flawed,” the Ava in front of him asks.

Rip’s seen enough science fiction movies to know where this is going. To know what the look in her eyes means. The cold, cool, and calculated way that she holds her gun steady in her hand pointed at him.

Honestly, the fact that it lasted this long seems like more of an accomplishment in itself.

This was what he got for disabling her personality core.

“My sisters and I could run this place ten times more efficiently than any human could, without all the mess, we’re programmed for efficiency.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” Rip says, reaching for the gun that he keeps under his desk.

For emergencies.

Though he hadn’t predicted that this would be one of them.

“However, I do rather like being alive, and unlike you I’m not so easily replaceable.”

  


4

By the forth time he learns from his previous mistakes.

Programs some unnecessary backstory little details to make her feel more human, replacing her preprogrammed skillset and purposes with something more common. Some way to keep her unaware of her true origins, unaware of her disposability or efficiency, before putting her back out there in the world.

It works long enough that she at least manages to have some sense of self preservation.

Not that it does much good in the end.

Because removing her objective, her programming as a soldier, as a weapon, and her infinite access to information, means that the first time he sends her out into the field on her own, she is wholly unprepared.

And the agents that had gone out with her return with a body bag and apologetic looks that he has to wipe away from their memories with a bright flash of light.

  


5

The second attempt at formulating her memories works better. A backstory crafted by Gideon, who now only speaks to him in modulated disapproving tones. A set of actors hired to pose as a family, generously compensated for his odd request. A military past giving an excuse for advanced training and tactics, allowing her original programming to shine through just right.

It works well, perhaps his best Ava yet.

She even begins to develop emotional attachments outside of him.

Something which he sees as a sign that his experiment is going well.

Until it’s not.

Until there’s a mission report come in.

The teary eyes on an agent that he had never met, too low on the totem pole for Rip to have paid any attention to, a glorified assistant in charge of things like validating parking, that had for some reason earned himself Ava’s favor.

Which was all good and well for her emotional development.

Though not for her longevity.

“I would have died,” the agent - Gary, Rip thinks his name is - says, a rush of admiration in his voice. “She saved me. I could have sworn I saw my life flashing before my eyes, but then she was right there in front of me and I - It all happened so fast.”

Apparently programming that protective instinct out of her was easier said than done.

“She saved me,” the agent repeats, still a little awestruck.

Lucky to be alive.

“Yes, she has a terrible habit of doing that.”

  


6

“What do you mean it blew up?”

The agents in front of him shift slightly. Looking as if they would rather be anywhere other than in his office reporting that one of his best and brightest had somehow managed to get her whole ship and team blown up.

Which, at this point isn’t even surprising it’s just... Bloody inconvenient as always.

“Well, sir, it, uh… Exploded?”

  


7

He takes her with him on his less _orthodox_ missions.

Because he knows that if there is anyone that he can trust to keep what he’s working on  a secret. It’s the woman that he choose, that he programmed, for that exact purpose.

She follows him without question, a loyal protege to all that don’t know better, herself included.

With Ava he’s able to go into places that he wouldn’t dare risk less… Replaceable agents on. Regardless of the inconvenience, at least, if these leads went south there wasn’t another lost soul to weigh down on his conscience. He already has too many ghosts that haunt him in the dark of the night.

Together they follow leads that he doesn’t want the rest of the Time Bureau to find out about. That he can’t have them find out about. For all that he is, one of the Director’s of the Time Bureau, there are also secrets that they cannot know for risk of losing his credibility. Something which seems absurd considering that he founded the Time Bureau.

And yet… Somehow even when faced with the truth of time travel, there are still seems more fantasy than science.

A demon that wants to destroy all of time is at the top of that list.

A demon that’s currently attempting to possess a clone without much success.

“It’s a lot harder when they don’t have a soul, isn’t it?”

 

8

“Oh bollocks, not again.”

“Director Hunter, I was - She saved me. I’m sorry I -” Rip holds up a hand, stopping what he was sure was going to be a very heartfelt and teary apology from Gary. Something which would be moving if this wasn’t the the second time that he had heard the man rambling about how Agent Sharpe died protecting him.

He brings the memory wipe up, cutting Gary off before he can even finish his sentence.

  


9

“I’m not human? What do you mean, I’m not -”

“You need to calm down,” Rip says, because an agent having a panic attack in his office was bad enough.

But Ava… Ava was something else entirely.

He’d grown fond of her over the iterations. Able now to notice the slight differences between each one that was made. Only little minor things, ways she’d react to certain stimuli.

In this case, he’d ended up with one slightly more curious than the rest.

“You shouldn’t have looked at that file,” Rip says, “In fact, I gave you express orders not to look at that file. Orders which you disobeyed.”

“I’m not real,” Ava says, not really listening to him. Unable to do more than sit there shaking in his office chair. Unable to _compute_ her new reality. “How am I supposed to - how long have - have I always been? Am I even really -”

“No,” he tells her, even though he knows that’s not the answer that she wants to hear.

It’s the truth.

Not that that makes any difference.

“Why,” she asks him, with tears in her eyes, when they look up to meet his own. “Why would you do this to me?”

He tells himself it’s a mercy when he pulls the gun out from his desk drawer.

  


10

She steps in front of him and it feels so much like the first time that it’s almost ironic.

Ava with blood staining her white dress shirt.

Too late to stop it.

Too late to stop the inevitable.

“Why do you keep doing this?”

This Ava dies with a look of confusion on her face, and question in her voice. “What do you mean?”

  


11

It’s his own fault, following a lead on Mallus, because he’s so close that he can taste it. There’s just a few more places left to check.

He brings Ava with him, because he always does and because she’s fuming after her recent encounter with the Legends. Disapproving of them for breaking the rules, violating the values that he had carefully programmed into her after the numerous failed attempts.

She’s distracted and ranting.

Which he supposes is probably what’s to blame for her walking into what would otherwise be considered a rather obvious trap when his lead on Mallus turns into a dead end.

Still, it’s more inconvenient than any of the others before, because he’s running short on time. There’s too much with Mallus happening too fast, and now that Gideon is back with the Legends... He takes a trip to 2213 with time that he really doesn’t have. Runs the necessary programs in a rush, because he has another lead, one that says _vampires_ and _London_ and feels just like it might just be the right one after far too long searching.

He can only hope, as he uploads his record of memories into the latest model, this time leaving out any of her knowledge of his independent research into Mallus, that the Legends don’t notice any change in the agent watching over time.

  


12

He’s certain that he’s not supposed to be hearing this.

A private moment.

One that neither of them would want him included in if they had any say in things and yet. He cannot help it, they’re all stuck here together, waiting for the inevitable end to either Mallus or all of time.

He didn’t predict this.

All his careful calculations and none of them had accounted for the scene before him.

He supposes he should have seen it coming. Ava did tend to have a habit of stepping in the way of danger, of protecting others even when she did not know how replaceable she was. The only logical conclusion since finding out that she knew about her true origins once more was that it would end up like this. Foolishly selfish even when she was programmed not to be.

Something there at her core that he had never calculated, in some place almost like a soul.

Only this time it’s not out of duty or loyalty to the Time Bureau.

It’s for something.

It’s for someone else.

The one thing that Rip had never predicted.

Then again, he couldn’t blame her.

After all, who couldn't help but fall in love with Sara Lance?

“It’s okay,” Ava says softly, meant only for the woman beside her, “I’m disposable, replaceable, that’s my whole purpose. When this is all over just go get another _Ava_ , we’re interchangeable -”

“Not to me,” Sara cuts her off. “You’re not - Ava I can’t lose _you_. I don’t want another version of you -  I can’t. I want you. This you. I don’t know what I’ll do without you.”

”You’ll survive,” Ava insists. “If anyone can it’s you.”

“Ava, please, don’t leave me.”

“There were eleven other versions of me that died for nothing, but at least now, I’m dying for the woman that I love. That has to count for something, right?”

 


End file.
